1. Vanderbilt Visions... An Exercise in Collaboration
LOEX Conference, May 1-3, 2008
Melinda Brown
Lee Ann Lannom
Amy Stewart-Mailhiot
Welcome! Today we’ll be talking about the Vanderbilt Library’s involvement in the 2007 first-year student orientation program, Vanderbilt Visions. We thought we’d start by giving you some background information about Vanderbilt and the program. 1

2. The Environment Private research university Nashville, TN
11,847 students
6532 undergraduates
1,700 first-year students
Student enrollment figures from
Vanderbilt website:

3. The Environment 4 schools with undergraduate programs
Blair School of Music
Peabody College of Education & Human Development
College of Arts & Science
School of Engineering
4 Libraries that serve these colleges
There are 10 schools on campus, only 4 with undergraduate programs.
Four libraries on campus serve these colleges –
Anne Potter Wilson Music Library
Peabody Library
Central Library
Sarah Shannon Stevenson Science & Engineering Library
There is no English 100 or Composition class that students from all four schools take.

4. What is Vanderbilt Visions?
Semester-long orientation program for
first years
First year students attend a semester-long orientation program. It is not a “for credit” program.
Focus on social, academic, cognitive & cultural transition from high school to college 4

5. What is Vanderbilt Visions?
Common, shared experience
100 sessions – students + 2 VUceptors
Feedback from students in Visions program…
Vanderbilt Visions provides students from all 4 schools with a common, shared experience. The incoming class of students is broken into 100 groups – 17 students (for 2007) plus 2 VUceptors – a faculty member and an upperclass student peer mentor.
Visions is very student oriented and feedback is used to improve the program each year. 5

6. …Include a Library Session!
In 2006, the Visions students who participated in focus groups asked for a library session. We were told the faculty members attending the focus groups were shocked to hear this request.

7. What Happened Next?
Committee on Undergraduate Information Literacy (CUIL)
Vanderbilt Libraries – undergraduate
Center For Teaching
Writing Studio
CUIL member on Vanderbilt Visions Advisory Board
In October of 2006, the Library and staff from the Center for Teaching and the Writing Studio started the Committee on Undergraduate Information Literacy or CUIL. The Writing Studio representative (who is also the Library liaison) was also a member of the Vanderbilt Visions advisory group. This meant that we were given an opportunity to make a proposal for a Library related session.

8. CUIL Makes a Proposal Introduce resources of Library system
High school vs. college level research
Multimedia, interactive presentation
Meet with large groups
The CUIL proposal included the above four points.

9. Expected Positive Outcomes
Give all students a base-line introduction to Library services & tools
Introduce students to a librarian (or two)
Make students aware help is available at libraries on campus
The Library felt that this would give us an opportunity we had not had in the past. There were several positive outcomes we could anticipate.

10. Proposal Accepted – Now What?
CUIL Coordinator became the Project Manager
As members of CUIL, the Writing Studio & the Center For Teaching participated from the beginning
The CUIL proposal was accepted. Since the CUIL Coordinator was a librarian, it made sense for her to become the Project Manager for the Vanderbilt Visions project.

11. Development of the Presentation
Parts in development process:
Visions Reader Entry
Video Interviews
Lesson Plan
Staff Training
There were four components for the Visions’ session:
An entry for the Reader that was given to all the students in the program
Interviews of current students and faculty
The lesson plan
And training for the staff presenting the library session

12. Development of the Presentation… Visions Reader Entry
“What Vanderbilt Students Think First-Year Students Should Know about the Libraries?”
Each library has its own character - try them all out & find out which one works best for you.
Explore the libraries - there are lots of computers and hidden study nooks where you might not expect them to be
The libraries were invited to contribute to the Reader. Other entries would be first-person essays, not quite what the libraries wanted to contribute
Decided to put in a top ten list of what students thought first-year students should know about the libraries.
To get student feedback – facebook ad and survey the student employees in the library; drawing for $25 gift card. Permission obtained from students to use their comments.
Survey question – If you could go back and tell your ‘starting college’ self the Top 10 most helpful things to know about the library, what would you include?
Surprisingly, many respondents gave us their own top ten lists. Responses were as telling as a recent libqual survey. We learned the best places to make out in the library!
CUIL analyzed the responses and came up with a top ten list.
They have real (as in non-required, fiction) books at the library! Good for beach reading over spring break!

13. Development of the Presentation… Video Interviews
Faculty, graduate & undergraduate student interviews
Focus on the research process, tools & advice for first-year students
Collaboration among campus partners
CUIL created interview questions surrounding the research process, tools and advice for first-year students.
Interviews conducted by the Center for Teaching Library Liaison, able to get perspectives from library users, not library focused
Sought out interviewees who:
Undergraduates, graduates and faculty
From all 4 undergraduate colleges
Reflected diverse cultural backgrounds
Interview taping began in June, which impacted on available interviewees
Interviewees signed a release giving us permission to use the videos as we needed as long as they did not appear on YouTube
Project Coordinator watched the videos, selected the best clips to embed into the ppt slide show
Video editor turned raw video into finished product – started with Camtasia then found LRC& their video editing equipment. Used Final Cut Pro and Quicktime to create the final versions

14. Development of the Presentation: Lesson Plan
Video Clips
Interactive Learning
Fun Facts
Planning group – 2 librarians from Central Library; 1 librarian from Peabody; 1 from Writing Studio
Started with discussion on what to cover in lesson in time frame allotted;
meet interests of students from 4 different colleges;
how to do it in a way to keep the students engaged considering the large groups
Work began in earnest –
creating the lesson plan
adding in clicker questions for interaction with students
creating the ppt slide show with videos
scripting the presentation
creating the ‘fun facts’ slide show (highlight info to know & serve a clicker questions)
Needed to consider – examples that would appeal to all the students, cross-disciplinary; diverse representation in images
Script

15. Development of the Presentation: Staff Training
Final Preparations
Training for 29 staff
Practice with new clickers
Field trip to lecture rooms
20 Vision Presentations in 3 days
Staff from all departments were invited to participate and be instructors or helpers with the Visions Session
This allowed staff not normally involved in instruction but with and interest an desire to participate to be involved
Supervisor approval was given for support staff that wanted to participate
Staff paired into teams (instructor and helper)
Training sessions for the presentation & ppt slide show were held
Members of the planning group ‘taught’ the presentation to instructors; with Q&A after each session to talk through the presentation and make any adjustments
Clicker technology new to library staff (Turning Point); several training sessions set up for staff to practice with the new clickers
Field trips to the lecture room
Project Coordinator with library tech support and VU tech support to test out computers and software
Instructors and helper visited the classroom to test out equipment and lighting in the rooms before the presentations
Then, begin the presentations –
20 presentations over a 3 day period

16. Intellectual Engagement at Vanderbilt
Or…
Things You Need To Know
About Research,
But Didn’t Learn In High School
Here are a few sample slides from the actual presentation.
Script used for Vanderbilt Visions presenters for this slide:
Welcome, everyone. I’m __________, and I work at _________ Library.
We’re here today to talk about how research for college level assignments is different from research you may have done for your high school assignments.
While we don’t have enough time today to show you everything you’ll need to know for your assignments, once we’ve finished you’ll have a much better idea of where you can go to get started on your research and how to get help if you need it.

17. Lights… Camera… Action!
NOTE: Video shown at presentation is not available for the LOEX site.
Script used for Vanderbilt Visions presenters for this slide:
We thought it might be useful to find out from Vanderbilt faculty and students tips on how they did research and what they thought first year students might need to know.
So we interviewed people from different departments and schools on campus.
Let’s start by taking a look at what some of them had to say.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE.

18. Which of the following cannot be checked out at one of the libraries at Vanderbilt?7
A puppet
An umbrella
A skeleton
A globe
A parachute
A sample clicker question.

19. Learn how and where to get started with your research
High School VS. College Research (It was a piece of cake, until I read the syllabus…)
Script used for Vanderbilt Visions presenters for this slide:
Now that we’ve tested the clickers out, let’s begin. You’ve been at Vanderbilt for a couple of weeks now, and you’ve probably already noticed that your professors here have different expectations for your work than your high school teachers had. One of the things that Vanderbilt professors expect is that you will develop more sophisticated research skills; in fact, many of the assignments you’ll receive in your courses are actually designed to help you develop your research skills. After today, and when you get your next research assignment, you will know how, and where, to get started.
You will notice that there are a lot of resources here at Vanderbilt – many more than you’ve had access to in the past. Today, we are here to show you a couple of the resources that the Library makes available for you to use. We’ll look together at some very basic ways to begin your research when you come into the library, and we’ll tell you about how to get help when you need it.
Learn how and where to get started with your research

20. Hints: Reading Assignments
If you see any of these:
annotated bibliography
secondary source material
scholarly or peer-reviewed articles
Script used for Vanderbilt Visions presenters for this slide:
Most student research is directly linked to an assignment. Your college professors may ask you to complete research tasks that are new to you. You might be asked to do things like produce an annotated bibliography or look up secondary source material on a topic; or maybe you will be asked to give a presentation using scholarly or peer-reviewed articles.
And, you’ll probably find that the kinds of research assignments you will receive will look different from one another depending on things like your major, the particular topic you’re researching, or the course requirements of a specific professor.
It’s research time!

21. Research Traps to Avoid
Too much Google and Wikipedia
Not enough scholarly resources
Hard to port! We’re heading for the Googlepedia Triangle. We need to get away before our research project is sunk!
Script used for Vanderbilt Visions presenters for this slide:
As we noticed when we asked you how you get started, many of you said that you use Google and Wikipedia. However, while researchers may start with general internet resources, they always move on to more scholarly ones.
In fact, professors have told us some things they’ve noticed about students’ research habits.
1. First, they notice that student research relies heavily on general web resources like Google and Wikipedia, and they want to help you learn how to locate resources that are more reliable than these.
2. Second, when professors ask students to do research using scholarly resources, students have trouble knowing what scholarly resources are and where to find them.
What we’re going to do now is show you how to avoid these two problems, so that you can do your best when you receive assignments that require research. The main resources you will need for most assignments will be book and articles. Let’s try another clicker question here.

22. Articles can be your BFF
Script used for Vanderbilt Visions presenters for this slide:
So, you can see the importance of looking through books on your research topic, but it is equally important to look for articles when you research, because articles sometimes present the most current ideas on a topic.

23. Aaargh! What’s the difference?
Popular vs. Scholarly
Script used for Vanderbilt Visions presenters for this slide:
You may have already received an assignment asking you specifically to find scholarly articles; many assignments, or at least parts of assignments, will ask you to do this. As librarians, we know that it can be difficult to determine on your own what counts as a scholarly article. We have some resources – including a great online tutorial -- that can help you learn how to recognize a scholarly article, especially how to tell the difference between scholarly and popular sources. You will want to talk with your professors about what they consider scholarly.
Aaargh! What’s the difference?

24. After the Show… Library debriefing sessions Visions staff feedback
Unexpected Surprises
Recommendations
The remainder of the presentation will cover feedback gathered from library staff participants and Vanderbilt Visions staff, some of the unexpected benefits of taking part in Vanderbilt Visions, and recommendations for other institutions considering similar programs.

25. Debriefing Sessions… Presenter Feedback
Question
Feedback
Proposed solutions
Do training before sessions
Enlist student workers
Have more library staff per session
Did you get enough help from VUceptors?
Strong consensus … NO
How was the timing of the presentation?
Majority started
5-15 minutes late
Consolidate film credits
Cut out parts of video
Three debriefing sessions were held to allow all staff to participate. The sessions were structured around 8 questions addressing different aspects of the experience.
The first session was facilitated by the Project Coordinator (PC). The next two sessions were facilitated by another librarian, thus allowing the PC to focus on note taking and processing. This also provided a ‘buffer’ between the PC and any negative responses.
The next three slides detail the key information gathered at the sessions. 25

26. Debriefing Sessions… Presenter Feedback
Question
Feedback
Proposed solutions
Ranged from attentive to bored
Problems with students using cell phones
Students liked clickers
Shorten first video clip
Find ways to increase interactive elements
How was the student response & behavior?
Some rooms required more practice to get the right balance for lighting
Lighting needs varied during PPT and video portions of presentation
Did the lighting changes or other technical issues impact your presentation? 26

27. Debriefing Sessions… Presenter Feedback
Question
Feedback and Proposed Solutions
Videos could have been shorter and/or less repetitive
More technical support from Learning Resource Center
Include popular vs. scholarly tutorial
Include a welcome clip from University Librarian
Conduct more interviews to increase & improve selection
Aside from technical problems, what part(s) could have worked better? 27

28. Visions Staff Feedback
Increase the level of interactivity
Include more student involvement
Find creative ways to involve VUceptors
The feedback from our campus partners at Vanderbilt Visions focused on three main areas:
A desire to have an increased level of interactivity for the students
The need to include more student involvement and feedback during the planning stages
Involving the VUceptors in more creative ways (not just handing out clickers, etc.)

29. Unexpected Bonuses Desire to do more sessions
Discovery of hidden staff talents
Our own ‘shared experience’
Increased sense of collaboration
Cross-library communication
Our initial focus on ‘benefits’ centered around providing all students with a baseline experience with the library and it’s resources. There were, however, a number of unexpected bonuses that benefited the librarians.
Many of the Visions participants stated that they wish they had done more than one session. This was in contrast to initial attempts by the Project Coordinator to get volunteers for multiple sessions.
In the course of the planning, we discovered that our staff had many unique talents, including broadcasting experience, graphic design skills, and an interest in video editing.
Finally, working on this system-wide project provided a positive collaborative experience that has continued on in other areas of the library.

30. Recommendations Determine level of autonomy up front
Involve students throughout process
Be Inclusive:
Encourage participation at all levels of the library
Invite faculty & other campus partners to serve as advisors
We offer the following recommendations for other institutions considering similar projects:
Determine your level of autonomy up front – find out from your campus partner how often you need to check in on the status of the project.
Involve students throughout the process – get their feedback early and often
Be inclusive – Invite all library staff to take part. Welcome the unique perspective that faculty and campus partners can provide.

31. Recommendations Explore & utilize the talents of staff
Consider technology needs early:
Survey campus resources
Determine what you should outsource
Make use of the ‘hidden talents’ of your staff
Consider your technology needs early in the process – Find out what resources are available on campus and which campus partners might be willing to help. Determine what parts of the project you might want to outsource (video production, for example.)

32. Do you have a ritual for bringing your research to a close?
NOTE: Video shown at presentation is not available for the LOEX site.

33. Vanderbilt Visions... An Exercise in Collaboration
LOEX Conference, May 1-3, 2008
Melinda Brown,
Lee Ann Lannom,
Amy Stewart-Mailhiot,
Please feel free to contact any of the presenters if you have any questions! 33